Natural dairy cream is used extensively in cooking a range of food products, including savoury dishes, such a creamy pasta sauce, and sweet dishes, such as cream-containing desserts.
Creams are available in a variety of physical forms. The consistency of dairy creams often correlates to their fat content, however this can be modified by added thickeners to some extent. At one end of the spectrum of consistency is regular “cream”, otherwise referred to as “single cream” in the UK and Australia, or as “light” “table” or “coffee” cream in the USA. These creams have a thin, runny pourable consistency and typical fat contents of about 18% to 30% depending on the country. The next thicker consistency of cream types in the spectrum is referred to as “thickened cream” or “whipping cream” in Australia and the UK, or as “medium cream”, “light whipping cream” or “whipping cream” in the USA. These thicker creams have a thicker but still pourable consistency, and have typical fat contents of about 30-36% for regular-fat level varieties, although low fat varieties containing added gums for thickness may have a lower fat content, such as 18%. At the upper end of the spectrum are the thick creams, which are known as “double creams” in Australia and the UK, or as “extra-heavy”, “double”, or “manufacturer's cream” in the USA. These creams have a consistency such that a spoonful of the cream falls as a dollop from the spoon. The cream cannot be poured in a constant stream. In contrast to this, a spoonful of cream cheese or a cream cheese-type spread will stick to the spoon and will only be dislodged as a lump if scraped off the spoon. Such creams of this consistency resulting in the formation of a dollop as the cream falls from a spoon is referred to herein as “thick cream”.
Natural dairy creams have a number of disadvantages. These creams have a limited shelf-life, typically less than two weeks under refrigerated storage conditions. If these creams are thermally processed to increase the shelf life, this can adversely affect the properties of the cream, including sensory and organoleptic attributes including taste, mouthfeel, texture, colour and odour.
In addition, when subjected to heating to elevated temperatures typical in cooking, such as in the preparation of savoury cream-based sauces, the cream becomes runnier and fails to adhere to other food products being coated, resulting in flavour being lost from the food product itself as the creamy liquid pools at the bottom of the dish.
Further, under heating conditions, creams can separate. Even at room or refrigeration temperatures separation or syneresis can occur.
A further disadvantage of natural dairy creams is that creams of a thicker consistency tend to have a higher fat content. There is a public interest in reducing the fat content of ingredients used in cooking, although without loosing the taste and textural properties that come from the fat content.
A number of cream substitutes have been proposed previously. However, these cream substitutes are often designed to be dairy fat-free and/or contain vegetable fats and oils in place of the dairy fats or other dairy ingredients. This results in the cream substitute having a flavour and organoleptic properties that do not sufficiently closely approximate those of natural dairy cream. In addition, these substitutes do not address the other problems associated with dairy cream, such as stability in cooking, thickened consistency, and retaining good coating properties on food at elevated temperatures. Often these cream substitutes are designed to provide a cream replacement for whipping, which involves different properties to those desired for a cream substitute suitable for use in cooking applications.
Accordingly, it is desired to produce a cream substitute that addresses one or more of these deficiencies in natural dairy cream. It is also desired that the cream substitute be based on dairy ingredients, to retain a dairy-based flavour. It is also desired to develop a method for the preparation of a cream substitute that enables these desirable properties to be obtained.